AI was recently asked to do a 5 tier wedding cake, just basic cake flavors and smooth iced with white buttercream, no decorations. I quoted her $400 for this cake and was wondering what my fellow bakers thought of this. Any feedback is welcome, thanks!

AWhat will be your tier sizes?

Abottom tier would be a 16 inch and top 6 inch. Still not sure on the middle 3 but probably 14, 10, and 8.

First, you can't really give a final quote without knowing exactly what the cake is going to be.

Second, if you do the tier sizes you think you might be doing, that's $1.58 per serving. That's 252 servings. This person can afford to throw a party for 250 people and has found someone to do her cake for $400. She sounds very resourceful.

I would tell her the $400 was a terrible mistake - you don't know what you were thinking or it was a typo - and that it would be more like $1100.

AAccording to the Wilton care cutting guide, that will be about 252 servings. My rock bottom price for a plain, buttercream cake for 252 would be $3 per serving, absolutely no decoration. That's right in middle of the market range for my area, so my price would be $756.

AOver 200 servings?

oh no no no..that would be at least $1000 for buttercream and more for fondant.

ASo the answer is....no, no it's not a fair price at all.

And why undecorated, is she going to have someone else do it?  That might lead to a sticky situation.

AThis is why I asked on here, I gave her that quote and now she will not answer any of my emails. I thought I was giving her a "break" but was doing that intentionally because I am just starting out in this area and she was picking up, and doing all the decorations herself.

If you are a decorator, don't do the cake unless you charge a fortune for it.  I guess it could be considered purchasing a canvas, but artists don't sell their canvasses, they sell their art.

Geez, no that's not a fair price.  Plain bc is the hardest of all finishes to do.  

What if she decorates it into a wreck and then tells people you made the cake?

ALost revenue in this case would mean giving away about $600. Based on the $1000 price. Do you like this person enough to give her that much money? So much work involved here, it might feel better to just write her a check.

AThank you everyone for getting back to be however this was not the discussion I was trying to get into so next time I will be more descriptive in my question. I understand my price was low but that was because of the discussion I had with her and since she has yet to respond I thought maybe I was wrong. I know material wise I would not be losing money on the cake.

I do really appreciate the people who made me realize letting someone else decorate one of my cakes is not a great idea, since I was not happy with that request to begin with.

AWrong about what?

A

Materials aren't the only "cost" to a cake, though. My food costs are about 15-20% of the cake selling price. But when i do my gross/net calculations at the end of the year I don't net 80% of my gross. Based on my net profits, if I had a cake that should be a $1000 cake and I sold it for $400, I would be losing money even if my food costs were only $150. I think the point of the responses you're getting is that the price isn't fair to you, not that it isn't fair to the customer!

ADang it, yes...not fair to YOU!

Here's the blog post...remember that the point is that the cost of ingredients is only a part of pricing, since the time involved and time on things that aren't directly related to the cake itself count too. http://www.acaketorememberva.blogspot.com/2014/04/how-long-does-it-take-to-make-cakehow.html

Ditto!  I did that. A sore lesson but, I am just getting started on the selling part.

Always, remember you are providing a service and your time is worth at least 3x the cost of the ingredients.

AAh, I remember this feeling when I was first starting out (yesterday ;)) - That insecurity when a perspective client doesn't respond. Well, it turns out that a lot of people inquire, ask a million questions, ask for quotes, etc. and they really don't have any serious intentions of placing an order. That's why some people post on their websites, "Serious inquiries only!" I get people who already know my prices, go over all the details of what they want, I type everything up... and they still never place the order! I'm sure some people realize it's not in their budget, some find a replacement for less $$, some never really had any serious intentions - they just wanted to go over everything just in case and some just simply change their minds.

It took about 6 times for me to figure this out for myself ;).

I've actually run across a few people who just seem to enjoy discussing designs and pretending they are going to order. They usually contact you about 8 months before the party and will waste shameful amounts of your time.

Then there are the serious customers who want to plan their child's birthday party 6 months in advance. Right now the child is into mermaids, but in 6 months it will be something else. I have it happen all the time. On one hand I appreciate their planning early, but you just can't plan a kid's party that early. Not if you're going to take what the child wants into account.

I have a party planner that constant wants quotes from me, but only orders about once per every 5 quotes. I assume she sends the same request out to 10 bakers at once.